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Driver is jailed over hit-and-run
A HOSPITAL worker was left with catastrophic injuries after she was run over by a speeding motorist in a powerful sports car.
Michelle Lovett was crossing Hylton Road, in Sunderland, during her lunch break when Dominic Neil came speeding around the corner and ploughed into her.
Mrs Lovett suffered a shattered pelvis, broken leg and needed 107 stitches to her head after the collision and has been left with a number of problems.
The accident has left her unable to tend to her daughter's grave and in
constant agony.
Neil, 23, who was driving a VW Golf V6 despite only having passed his driving test nine months before the accident, was yesterday jailed for 16 months and banned from driving for four years.
Judge David Wood, at Newcastle Crown Court, told Neil: "You were an inexperienced driver but you bought a very powerful and fast motor car.
"Had you driven within the speed limit you should have been able to stop before this collision occurred."
Mrs Lovett, 40, who worked at Sunderland Royal Hospital, was crossing the road with her mother when she was hit on October 4 last year.
Neil, who lived nearby, came round the corner doing an estimated 50mph in a 30mph zone and despite his attempts to swerve out of the way, he struck Mrs Lovett.
She was flung through the air and left seriously injured in the road, but Neil panicked and drove off, although he soon gave himself up to police.
Mrs Lovett had surgery to insert a pin in her leg, spent two months in traction, had surgery on her hip and pelvis, was off her feet for three months and has to use a walking stick and wheelchair to get about.
She also contracted MRSA in a leg wound while in hospital and doctors say it is likely she will suffer arthritis and will need a hip replacement in three years.
Mrs Lovett has been unable to return to her former job, she is in too much pain to drive or sleep, requires continuous pain relief and rarely leaves the house.
The court heard she is unable to bend her hip, which is particularly
distressing because her 20-year-old daughter died 18 months ago and she can no longer tend to her grave.
She also suffers nightmares, headaches, has to take anti-depressants and feels she has lost her independence because of the accident.
Neil, of Ingleby Terrace, High Barnes, Sunderland, pleaded guilty to dangerous driving and failing to stop after an accident.
The court heard that three days after a previous appearance at Newcastle Crown Court on the same matter in August, Neil had been clocked speeding at 45mph in a 30mph zone.
Jamie Adams, defending, said: "He is sorry for what occurred, he has lived with this all of this time and it was troubling him and his family, they are beside themselves."
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Friday 10 February 2012
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